THE SIGNAL IS CHANGED
Peveril had been amazed and disgusted at the sudden turning about and
departure of the boat that had so nearly effected his rescue. Of
course, on recognizing the oarsmen, he understood why they declined to
help him, though it did not enter his mind that they regarded him as a
supernatural being.
"What cowards they are!" he reflected, bitterly. "They are determined
to kill me though, that is evident, and I don't believe they will be
content with simply leaving me here to die of exposure. It's more than
likely they will roll rocks down on me from the cliffs during the
night. There's a cheerful prospect to contemplate, with darkness
already coming on, too!
"That young fellow seemed willing enough to help me, only he was bound
to do it in his own way; but now I suppose those wretches will prevent
him from making any more efforts in my behalf. What is he doing with
that gang of murderers, I wonder? Apparently he is about as far
removed from that class as a person can be. Well, that's neither here
nor there. The one thing to be considered just now is, how am I to
get out of this fix? I wonder if there is any possibility of that cord
bearing my weight."
The cord thus referred to was the one by which the basket of food had
been lowered. As it still hung close at hand, Peveril gave it a sharp
pull. Although it yielded slightly, it did not break, and, encouraged
by this, he threw his whole weight on it as a conclusive test of its
strength. The result was sudden, surprising, and wellnigh disastrous.
The cord gave way so readily that Peveril sprawled at full length on
the rocks, while, at the same time, something heavy fell with a rush
down the face of the cliff and struck with great force close beside
his head.
Springing to his feet in alarm at this most unexpected happening, the
prisoner found to his amazement and also to his delight that he had
pulled down the derrick-tackle by which he had descended. To be sure,
the block at its lower end had very nearly dashed out his brains, but
what did he care for that so long as he had been given the benefit of
the miss? For a moment he was puzzled to know how his pull on the cord
could have effected so desirable a result, but, upon an examination of
the tackle, he laughed aloud at the simplicity of the proposition. For
want of something better to hold her end of the cord, Mary Darrell had
tied it to the block of the derrick-tackle, intending, of course, to
draw up the basket again as soon as her starving guest had emptied it.
Then, absorbed in a suddenly evolved plan for releasing him from his
predicament and at the same time preserving her father's secret, she
had gone away and neglected to do so.
Peveril was not slow to avail himself of the means of escape thus
provided, and a few minutes later stood once more within the portal of
the great cavern. His first care was to haul up the tackle and dispose
it as he imagined it to have been left, with the attached cord hanging
down the face of the cliff.
"There!" he said, when this was done to his satisfaction. "The young
fellow is almost certain to come back for another look at me, and,
though I fancy he'll be somewhat surprised to find me gone, it will
never enter his head that I am up here. Then when he leaves I will
simply follow his lead, and so find the way out of this mysterious
place. Perhaps, though, I can discover it for myself."
Thus thinking, Peveril made as careful an examination of the cavern
walls as the fading light would permit, but could find no sign of an
opening. Finally, deciding to carry out his original plan, he selected
a hiding-place, and, settling himself in it as comfortably as
possible, began to await with what patience he might the return of his
young friend.
By this time the cavern was quite dark, save for a dim twilight at its
opening; and, having nothing to distract his attention, he began to
realize how very weary he was after the exertions and nervous strain
of the past three days. He had also just eaten a hearty meal. It is
little wonder then that, within five minutes, and in spite of his
strenuous exertions to keep awake, he fell fast asleep. Fortunately
he did not snore, nor make any sound to betray his presence, but
unfortunately, also, his slumber was so profound that when, a little
later, Mary Darrell and her father softly entered the gallery and
cautiously proceeded to its mouth for a look at the prisoner, whom
they supposed still to be on the black ledge, he did not waken.
Puzzled as they were at his disappearance, they were also greatly
relieved to have him gone. They never for a moment imagined that he
could have regained the cavern, and so, after drawing up the basket,
they retired as they had come, leaving Peveril undisturbed to his nap.
While it was not certain that the expected smuggling schooner would
reach the coast that evening, she might do so, and, with the
cautiousness marking all of his operations, Ralph Darrell decided that
it would not do for her cargo to be landed while there was a chance of
a stranger, who was at the same time an enemy, being in the
neighborhood. He felt assured that the young man who had so
mysteriously appeared and disappeared that day must be an enemy; for,
though Mary had not mentioned his name, she had described him as being
the one who had recently attempted to steal his logs from the
land-locked basin. Now he had no doubt that the chap was a
revenue-officer who had come to spy out his smuggling operations, and
only pretended to be in search of wrecked timber as a cloak for his
real designs. Else why should he still hang around, and especially in
the vicinity of the cavern, where there were no logs?
Mary even declared a belief that he had been in their carefully
concealed hiding-place, but, of course, she must be mistaken. Still,
no more cargo must be landed until the spy was located and driven from
that region.
"I sha'n't need to carry on the business much longer," said the old
man to himself; "but so long as I choose to remain in it I don't
propose to be interfered with."
So Mary was directed to go and display two lanterns at the mouth of
the cavern as a signal that no goods were to be landed that night,
while her father went out for the final look at his precious mining
property that he took every evening just after the men had quit work.
Ralph Darrell's heart was bound up in the new work he had recently
began, and so anxious was he to push it that he was engaging all
laborers who came that way. As yet his force was very small, but he
was in hopes of speedily increasing it. Thus, to discover that three
of his strongest men had suddenly thrown up their jobs and left him
without warning filled him with anger. So furious was he, even after
he entered the house, that poor Mary, who had just returned badly
frightened from the cavern, dared not confess to him that, through her
own carelessness, another stranger had been admitted to the hidden
storehouse of the cliffs.
Perhaps by morning this unwelcome visitor would have disappeared, as
the other had done; and, at any rate, he could never find the secret
passage, for it was too carefully concealed. By morning, too, her
father would be restored to his ordinary frame of mind, and it would
be easier to tell him what she had done, if, indeed, it should prove
necessary to tell him at all.
In the meantime Mike Connell was much puzzled by the nature of the
place in which he found himself after his climb, as well as by the
abrupt disappearance of the lad upon whom he had counted for guidance.
The darkness, with its accompanying profound silence, so affected him
that, while he called several times, "Whist now! Where are you? Come
out o' that, young feller, and have done with your foolin'!" he did so
in an awed tone but little above a whisper.
"All right; stay where you are then!" he added, after listening vainly
for a reply. "If it's a game of hide-and-seek ye want, I can soon
accommodate you, seeing as how you've been so kind as to leave me a
couple of glims, though it's only one of them I'll need."
Thus saying, the new-comer removed one of the two lanterns that had
been hung out as a warning to the smugglers, and unwittingly changed
the danger-signal into one of safety and invitation by so doing. With
the lantern thus acquired to light his footsteps, he began a careful
survey of the cavern, hoping to discover either an exit from it or his
vanished guide.
With his previous knowledge of the principal industry of that region,
it did not take him long to conjecture the meaning of the bales and
boxes upon which he soon stumbled.
"Holy smoke!" he cried; "it's a cave of smugglers you've broke into,
Mike Connell, no less, and a sorrowful time ye'll have of it if the
folks comes home and catches you at the trespassing! Where the divil
is the back door, I wonder, for the one in front is no good at all?
Saints preserve us! What's that?"
With this last exclamation the frightened Irishman began to retreat
slowly backward, holding his lantern so that, while it revealed his
own terror-stricken face, its light also fell full on the form of
Richard Peveril standing before him and staring in blankest amazement.
"Plaze, good Mister Spook--I mean yer Honor--Oh, Holy Fathers! what
will I say?" stammered the poor fellow, in such faltering accents that
Peveril broke into a roar of laughter.
"Mike Connell!" he cried; "wherever did you come from? and what has
happened? You look as though you had seen a ghost!"
"And haven't I?" retorted the other, still staring dubiously. "Is it
yourself, lad? But sure it must be, seeing you have a voice of your
own, which is a thing never yet given to a spook. Glory be to
goodness, Mister Peril, that I've found you just as I'd lost you
entirely, and meself as well!"
"But how do you happen to be here?" asked the still bewildered
Peveril.
"Sure I just came, thinking you might want me."
"Which way did you come?"
"Through the front door, the same as yourself."
"But I came in by a back entrance."
"Then we'd best be getting out that way, for I'm afeard there'll soon
be others here as won't be pleased to see us."
"We can't, for that way is barred," answered Peveril; "but let us sit
down and try to arrive at some understanding of this mysterious
affair."
So, for nearly an hour, the two talked over the situation; and, though
each frequently interrupted the other with questions or exclamations,
they finally gained a pretty clear comprehension of their position. At
the end of the conference Peveril exclaimed:
"Then, so far as I can see, we are shut up here like two rats in a
trap."
"Yes," cried Connell, "and here comes the rat-catchers after us now!"
As he spoke he pointed to the outer entrance, where the head and
shoulders of a man had just appeared above the rocky ledge.